Mind Body Spirit:
Transformation:
Christianity:
History:
Books For Writers:
Children & Young Adult:
Paganism:
Culture & Politics:
In this section:
Your cover is the first point of contact that most people have with your book. The image should invoke the curiosity and interest of the reader, reflect the reader's expectations in both image and approach and fit in on the relevant shelves in the bookshop.
Buyers will turn books down if the cover is not appropriate. If you’ve written a thriller and your cover looks like an academic textbook, your target readers won’t be drawn to it. And vice versa.
The final decision is with us, though in most cases the author's choice is upheld and our authors tend to be delighted with their covers.
We do not allow this.
In our experience, we end up with an amateurish cover more often than not, and the extra work involved isn’t worth the cost.
The cover is much more than the image. The finished file has to incorporate:
In addition, we need to:
Potential problems here are endless, and we cannot produce different designs for different markets. We prefer to work with the designers we know, who are familiar with our work and our systems. It is rare otherwise for it to run smoothly, and the eventual result is not normally as good.
This is why we propose our middle way. You give us images to work with and start the process and the lettering and overall design stay with us.
It is too subjective an area, and corrections/amendments can be endless.
Visit https://www.shutterstock.com/
Think
Remember:
This is fine.
Your image needs to be:
If your image fulfils these criteria, upload it to the Cover Workflow section.
Visit the Cover Workflow section
If your book is part of a series, please choose an image that fits in with the other titles. Your Designer will match the font and overall look.
As a rule, we say don’t bother to do this unless the person is well-known in their field and likely to generate extra interest.
If you believe this is the case:
Providing the name is “big” enough, the designer will include the text on the cover.
If you want a snippet from an endorsement on the cover, it must be received and added to your book’s page. Don’t ask us to add an endorsement that you are waiting for, or that might happen.
Likewise, if you are waiting for a foreword from an influential name but haven’t received it yet, don’t ask us to add it until it is actually delivered.
Of course! There is no need to acknowledge copyright of Adobe Stock pictures on publicity material.
Once your cover is finalized, you can download in the Final Files section of your book’s Production Page:
In addition, in the Cover Workflow section you can find (as well as earlier cover drafts):
These materials combined should give you all you need to:
The back cover contains:
The width of the spine depends on the amount of pages. The Designer leaves it late to design this, to maximize time for you to finish sourcing endorsements (which could add to the page count).
We do not usually have a photo on the back cover, they are mostly used for self-help and business books in North America, but if you do want it there, make a note in Notes for this workflow stage in the Cover Workflow section.
Your Designer will make a note of the typeface used on your cover in the notes on the Cover Workflow section.
Typefaces we like to use:
The main cover font for the Zer0 Books brand, for instance, is Refrigerator from www.veer.com, and the back cover copy is in Conduit.
Our default cover finish is matt, and the majority of our books have a matt cover.
Covers with special finishes, embossing, cut-outs, etc. are only practical if you are already selling in the tens/hundreds of thousands. They means much longer print runs, at different printers in North America and the UK.
